Today's Topics:
Pardon me ma'am, your Cunctator is showing
Rice-a-roni
[forwarded: machine vs machine]
SubGenius Digest #393
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Message-ID: <9003071825.AA24776@media-lab>
Date: Wed, 7 Mar 90 13:25:18 EST
From: Steve Strassmann <straz@media-lab.media.mit.edu>
To: subgenius@mc.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: Pardon me ma'am, your Cunctator is showing
Classified ad in "The Tech", MIT's student newspaper (March 6):
*Gorbachev owes his existence to GBS* GBS is the alternative frame of
reference. Learn the technique of the true Pygmalion. Subscribe now to
"Cunctator." Contact Walter Schafer at the Phonebook Corp at (617)492-7554.
The same issue also has a 1/4-page ad for the Paulist Fathers:
"For God's Sake.. Make the SACRIFICE!" Hmm, no volcanoes on campus -
will the nuclear reactor do?
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Message-ID: <9003071754.AA14714@haedx>
Date: Wed, 7 Mar 90 09:54:25 PST
From: Mason <haedx.UUCP!mason@cgl.ucsf.edu>
To: SubGenius@mc.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: Rice-a-roni
From: Steve Strassmann <straz@media-lab.media.mit.edu>
> From: <metaware!riscy!adam@ucscc.ucsc.edu>
> Correct me if I am wrong, but I beleive Boyd Rice is the same
> Boyd Rice of ReSearch "Pranks" fame. While he may seem cool and interesting
> in the book, I have it from a good source (Andrea Juno, co-editor of ReSearch
> and an EX-friend of Boyd's) that he has become part of a neo-nazi group.
> In fact, she even showed me a white-supremacy type magazine in which he
> was featured prominently, brandishing a knife and wearing a Brown shirt type
> of uniform.
>
> What this probably is, is one of Boyd's right-wing pranks designed
> to discredit the Church or the Christic Institute, or both.
>
>Well, I have it on good authority (Boyd's brother, Peter) that this is
>prank to discredit him. He was actually developing a prank on the
>American Pride Society of Indiana, but certain parties bearing grudges
>from his previous escapades got hold of the material and released it
>before it was ready. It's actually someone pretty high up in the
>Christic Institute who's trying to make him look like a nazi.
Let's put it this way, if this is a prank, he's being pretty stupid
about it -- I've seen a large number of photos, in several magazines
from this country and others, in which he is portrayed, with quotes,
as being involved with Bob Heick and Tom Metzger. He has now moved to
Denver to be with Bob Heick and the Aryan Nation movement. He is
working musically with other people who are known "Nazis" (I use quotes
since they could be neo-Nazis, White Supremists, whatever). It's
vaguely possible someone's trying to make him look like a Nazi, but
if so he couldn't be doing a better job helping them do it. I know for
an absolute fact that he is racist and anti-semitic. So Nazi or not,
he's close enough.
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Message-ID: <9003071923.AA27882@media-lab>
Date: Wed, 7 Mar 90 14:23:05 EST
From: Steve Strassmann <straz@media-lab.media.mit.edu>
To: subgenius@mc.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: [forwarded: machine vs machine]
Date: Sat, 3 Mar 90 16:11:46 -0500 (EST)
From: Douglas Nortz <dn1d+@andrew.cmu.edu>
To: Bulletin Board Administration <bb+org.ini.ms@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Service Interaction
This was in a letter from a friend of mine who works at microsoft. I
thought it would be a good example of what feature interaction can
actually do. . .
A particularly insidious kind of sales call now appearing in several
cities is one which is initiated by computer, and contains recorded
questions by some mellifluous voice that requires answers in simple
digits or "yes" and "no". A voice recognition circuit then processes
your answers and asks further questions based on your former answers.
The sales pitch is usually disguised as a survey of some kind.
The despicable thing about these things is that they won't leave you
alone. If you hang up, they will just call back again.
One day my wife got a call from one of these computer systems, and her
answering machine answered. The conversation that followed was
hilarious, as it consisted of two machines talking to each other
without having the slightest idea about what each other was saying.
The conversation wound up in an endless loop, as follows:
[PHONE] *RING*
[ANSWERING MACHINE] "...At the tone, please give your message.
BEEEEEP."
[PHONE] "Hello. This is [company_name], and we are taking a telephone
survey ... when I ask a question, wait for the beep, then please
speak plainly. I will repeat your answer back to you, and verify it.
First, what is your phone number? BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP."
(The answering machine, upon hearing the beep, got confused and thought
it was a play-back command, and generated another beep in response.)
[ANSWERING MACHINE] "BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP."
[PHONE] "Thank you! Your phone number was 443-28347-47756-377764-22222.
Is that correct? BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP."
[ANSWERING MACHINE] "BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP."
[PHONE] "Thank you! Do you have any children? BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP."
[ANSWERING MACHINE] "BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP."
[PHONE] Thank you! What is the age of your first child? BEEEEEEEEEEP."
[ANSWERING MACHINE] "BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP."
[PHONE] "Your first child is 1,222 years old. Is that correct?
BEEEEEP."
[ANSWERING MACHINE] "BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP."
[--------------- BEGIN ENDLESS LOOP ----------------]
[PHONE] "Thank you! Do you have any more children? BEEEEEEP."
[ANSWERING MACHINE] "BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP."
[PHONE] "Thank you! What is this child's age? BEEEP."
[ANSWERING MACHINE] "BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP."
[PHONE] "This child is 4,233 years old. Is that correct? BEEEEP."
[ANSWERING MACHINE] "BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP."
[---------------------END LOOP -----------------------]
My wife, upon noticing that the answering machine had been going for
over half an hour, turned up the volume to find out what was going on.
When she discovered this endless loop (by now she had over 200 children,
all over 1,000 years old), she switched off the answering machine. The
computer never called again.
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Message-ID: <9003072115.AA09467@spike.ai.mit.edu>
Date: Thu, 8 Mar 90 06:15:11 JST
From: Erica Brigid <zelig@ai.mit.edu>
To: SubGenius%MC.LCS.MIT.EDU@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu
Subject: Re: SubGenius Digest #393
